This is the fin-tastic moment bathers on a beach in Brazil rescue a young hammerhead shark after it was stranded when it strayed too close to the shore.

The juvenile smooth hammerhead (Sphyrna zygaena) startled swimmers when it bumped into their ankles in the surf at Mar Grosso, Laguna. In the state of Santa Catarina.

The shark, disoriented and lost, would almost certainly have died. If beach-goers had not given it a helping hand to get back to deeper water.

Video footage of the remarkable rescue on 6th January shows lifeguards. And swimmers lifting up the ocean predator and carrying it away from the shallows.

They quickly take the shark along the coastline, carefully avoiding its razor-sharp teeth.

As they reach a rocky outcrop one of the lifeguards leaps into the water with the shark to guide it back out to sea.

Expert Renato HA Freitas of the Ecology and Zoology Department of the Centre for Biological Sciences. At the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC) told local media that the shark appeared to be a juvenile about three years old.

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The smooth hammerhead is listed as vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species. But the Brazilian authorities consider it to be critically endangered.

Adult smooth hammerheads can grow to 16 feet long and are notorious for their aggressive behaviour.